(erdbrink and sommayeh spking): et sommayeh, my assistan for "the new york times."artment and i should have dropped by ages ago. (e rdbrink speaking): (erdbrink speaking): >> erdbrink: divorced women havd a ha time in iran, but their numbers are growing, especially in the cities. it has takenommayeh months to find someone willing to rent out an apartment to a single woman. (erdbrink laughs) ♪ >> erdbrink: sommayeh comes from a strictly religious family in a small, orthodox town near isfahan. she married a cousin 12 years her senior, but the marriage didn't work out. (erdbrink speaking): (sommayeh speaking): >> erdbrink: somyeh used to be a brilliant student of the quran. actually, she was so gat had she continued her studies, she probably would have become an eminent scholar instead of my assistant for "the new york times. back home, her father looked upon it with dismay. (sommayeh speaking): (erdbrink speaking): (erdbrink and sommayeh speaking): ♪ (laughing) ♪ >> erdbrink: i want to find out more about this dusty, nservative little town where she grew up. during th

(sommayeh speaking): (erdbrink and sommayeh speaking): (laughs) ♪ >> erdbrin sommayeh left far soonerism ati new york's coluniversity. i decide to visit her, curious i'd already read in her emails that it hadn't been easy. she had to share a ty room with a former model. her roommate needed the room for herself three days a week. she would have male visitors and needed sommayeh out of the way. whoa. oh, there is a window. y h, there is a very small window at the end of this room. so, welcome to my last year room. >> erdbrink: which bed was your >> there. >> erdbrink: next to the window? >> yeah, and imagine that i hadp my oce, after years fighting to have my own independence in tehran, i got a very nice two-droom apartment in tehran and i left everything behind... >> erdbrink: you worked hard f it. >> and came here, yeah. >> erdbrink: so you had a roommate, you me from iran, and what was this roommate likev >> well, she wasy social girl, totally active, into a relationship, you know. i learned a lot from her, but i learned a lot from some slice of life that we totally don't have in ira